Manager asks for NC over missing judge at UFC 204

Every MMA fan has seen it countless times. A ref checks the fighters for mouthpiece and cup, and then a ref points or looks to each of the three judges and the timekeeper. Most people assume it is a formality, like saying “hi, how are you?” to someone. You don’t expect that someone is going to tell you they are bad.

But speaking as an experienced ref, sometimes a fighter forgets a mouthpiece. Once it was even a cup. And sometimes the timekeeper or a judge is diverted at the moment and has to be signaled.

At the most elite level of the sport – the UFC – there is an assumption that these things couldn’t happen. But they did.

At UFC 204, during the very first fight, there was an odd tweet, from a highly knowledgeable figure.

https://twitter.com/julesk_fighter/status/784895325215404032

“>October 8, 2016

That little “judge” *point*, “judge” *point*, “judge” *point* thing you see at the beginning of every fight? Referee Kevin Sataki appears to have forgotten it, presumably because at an elite show these things can’t go wrong.

The empty chair belonged to one of the best judges in the world, Jeff Mullen. The error presumably happened when Ian Entwistle pulled out due to illness, and Leonardo Santos vs. Adriano Martins became the first fight on the card, not the second.

UFC vice president Marc Ratner is the former Executive Director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission and functions as the head regulator at international UFC events where there is no commission. He is one of the most respected regulators in combat sports history, if not the most respected. After the first round, Ratner realized that Mullen was seated not in a judge’s chair, but in the first row in the designated commission area, waiting to judge the next fight. Mullen indicated to Ratner that he had watched the first round, and could score it.

https://twitter.com/allelbows/status/784896373795721216

These are how the judges scored the split decision:
Jeff Mullen: Round 1 Santos, Round 2 Santos, Round 3 Martins
Paul Sutherland: Round 1 Santos, Round 2 Santos, Round 3 Martins
Maciej Motylewski: Round 1 Santos, Round 2 Martins, Round 3 Martins

Although the fight ended up as a split decision for Santos, there was little dispute about the first round. Thus from a practical point of view, the snafu did not appear to have materially changed the outcome.

Never the less, Martins’ manager Alex Davis did his job, and requested that the fight outcome be changed to a No Contest, due to the botched scheduling.

With all due respect to Santos and Nova Uniao, it was such a close fight that anything that judge missed, a single kick or punch, could change the result of the fight, said Davis to John Morgan for MMAjunkie. There is a protocol in place, and if the judge isn’t where he’s supposed to be at cageside, the fight should be considered a no contest.

UFC representatives issued a statement to Morgan.

At the UFC 204 event on Oct. 8 in Manchester, England, a judge was not in the proper judge’s chair during the first round of the Adriano Martins vs. Leonardo Santos bout. Judge Jeff Mullen was seated in the first row of the commission seating area and was observing the bout. Upon noticing that Judge Mullen was not in his appropriate seat at the end of round 1, Marc Ratner, UFC Senior Vice President of Government and Regulatory Affairs, asked Mullen if he believed that he could adequately score the round from his vantage point. Judge Mullen confirmed that he had observed the entire round and that he could appropriately score the round. As a result, Mullen filled out his judge’s scorecard for round 1 and took his appropriate judge’s seat to observe and score the remaining two rounds of the bout.

After the conclusion of the bout, all three of the judges’ scorecards were tallied, and the decision was announced. Although the bout resulted in a split decision for Santos, it is important to note that all three of the judges scored the first round 10-9 in favor of Santos.

In order to ensure that a similar incident does not occur in the future, UFC has reviewed its protocol for starting any and all bouts that occur in territories that do not have an applicable athletic commission or federation.

In a further bit of reassurance, Ratner explained to Morgan that he directs each judge to score all contests on the card, regardless of whether they are assigned the bout or not. This is done so that Ratner can review any controversial decisions after the event. Thus Mullen was in that first round not sitting by and enjoying a fight, but was actively judging, albeit not from the judge’s chair.

Ratner also explained that there is a protocol in place for the referee to check for each of the three judges. Unfortunately, for that protocol to work, the judge has to check for each of the three judges, just as he would for a regional show. Because “Sometimes these things happen in MMA.”